You know, just dropping the tailgate on a 245 would be bad enough, but "they" always insist on helping make matters worse by SLAMMING! the darn thing.

Last week I get a call from the kid who is now living far away. Once again, before she could shout, a friend of hers slammed the tailgate on her 1984 245 "Buster", breaking the latch mechanisn. Dads not there to fix it, so it was $160 to the independent Volvo shop.

I must be getting old, because it took this long to come up with a solution. Its not perfect, but it might just work some of the time.



There are two versions, labels or a sign that hangs down when the hatch is open. Use one or the other or ... go the belt and suspenders routine and use both. The warning sign/labels read:

STOP! LOWER DOOR BY HAND AND CLOSE GENTLY - SLAMMING OR DROPPING DOOR WILL RESULT IN DAMAGE

The sign that hangs down is made from a file folder and is attached behind the panel. It folds flat when the hatch is closed. A couple of washers are glued on the back of the sign to help it hang properly.

Although it may not look clear in the picture, the text on the sign and labels is easy to read.

If there is interest, I could post some PDF files so you don't need to bother to design your own.

Regards,

Tatra Mike

1985 244 "Alfsen"
1985 245 "Daisy"
1985 245 "Cosmo"

How do you stop your friends from door slamming?

I'm not afraid to just ask them not to slam the doors after that first occurrence.
That's usually all it takes (because I think they feel kind of embarrassed).
--
"Differences of opinions should be tolerated, but not if they're too different' - Sharon Craig

Some folks are just not embarrassed enough to stop slamming doors with a request. In my first year of college (1965) I was driving a $50 trade-in 1959 MB 190 sedan. The MB reputation for solid door closing is well earned---I never closed a bank vault but I can't imagine anything sounding more solid than the doors on that old beater. A couple of days each week I gave a lift to a fellow student in a nearby town--and I had to remind him almost every time to not slam the door. Of course eventually the window shattered into a zillion pieces with one of his closings. Cost him $50 bucks to pay for the used glass I installed. After that the the door closing went much better. -- Dave

Hi alschnertz and Volvo from Heck,


I have applied generous amount of butter (grease) on all four doors including tailgate and hood, it takes only one finger to shut.

Based on my observation for few years, they think my car is so old and the door is so heavy that it requires heavy shutting and slamming.

And I am too embarrassed to ask them. After all, it's an old car and I am in love this car not them.

Maybe I should put up a sign that says, "I love my Volvo, please don't slam the door."


--

I love my Volvo and Susan Boyle.

Al had the answer six years ago.

http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/volvo/1210087/220/240/260/280/fix_slamming_rear_door.html

Trying to train friends not to slam the foreign car door, well, I lost all my friends.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." Oscar Wilde

Hi Art,


"Trying to train friends not to slam the foreign car door, well, I lost all my friends."

If there is only one passenger, I usually reach over and catch the door as he/she slams it more like BOOM!!! :-( It gets challenging if there are more than one.

Thank you as always.

Here's one example of the good that can be done digging up archived material with the search function.

I need to replace my 'STOP' sign. It finally succumbed to 8 years of UV, but in that period I didn't have to repair the glass, latch, or lock on the 245 hatch.

But, the links to the PDFs are dead... No problem for me, I have saved the color versions. If Tatra Mike agrees, I can host those two for the rest of us. What a great idea this was. Not only a great idea, but the sign Mike laid out is a masterpiece!
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Just emailed all 4 versions to you.

Tatra Mike
Seattle, WA

1985 244 "Alfsen" (wife's car - the good one)
1984 245 "Buster" (the kid's car, now sold)
1985 245 "Cosmo" (parts car, sold off for move to WA)
1985 245 "Daisy" (back seat down, full of tools, the work truck)
1985 245 "Earl (CA vehicle 'retirement' program)

Hey Tatra Mike,

I found the message from Brickboard notifying me of this post, but not your files in my email. However, I will post links to those I already have (the color versions).

Volvo 245 Hatch Sign in Color

Volvo 245 Hatch Label in Color

benstein at cleanflametrap dot com
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Of course I wouldn't know what a Tatra was if not for your posts.

Below are links to the hatch warning sign and labels in Portable Document Format if you want to print your very own copy. Both black and white and color versions are there in case you don't have a color printer (I colored mine with a a red felt pen).

The labels in the picture are just printed on ordinary 20lb paper and attached with rubber cement. A company named Chartpak makes a product that would be great for the labels. Its basically a printable sheet of adhesive backed thin plastic which is great for making labels. The version I've used before has a matte white finish with a removable adhesive (DAFRPB8L-10). Other options are a permanent adhesive, gloss finish or even a clear sheet.


Volvo 245 Hatch Sign - Black & White (PDF format, 37KB)


Volvo 245 Hatch Sign - Color (PDF format, 111KB)


Volvo 245 Hatch Label - Black & White (PDF format, 40KB)


Volvo 245 Hatch Label - Color (PDF format, 114KB)

Update: I did an experiment in which I added a spring to the top of both struts. Even though the springs exerted a additional 80 pounds at the point of closing, they had no noticeable effect. Examination of the hatch geometry looks like the strut is at or over center at the point of closure. It appears a stronger strut would just make it harder to start the hatch down and not help at the bottom.

Regards,

Tatra Mike

1985 244 "Alfsen"
1985 245 "Daisy"
1985 245 "Cosmo"

Or try here:

Volvo 245 Hatch Sign in Color
Volvo 245 Hatch Sign in Black and White
Volvo 245 Hatch Label in Color
Volvo 245 Hatch Label in Black and White

On a side note ..

After having the gate come down on me on a cold morning and having to use a block of wood to hold up the gate till I found replacements at the PNP, and finding that some of my spares did the same thing, I looked for a way to test struts.

I found that using an old style spring weight scale worked. Just push down on the strut and watch for when it starts to give. If it is less than 80 lbs., the strut will probably collapse in cold weather. If it is over 90 lbs., it should hold up. This is for the old '80 gate which may be heavier than newer gates.

I think my old 145 only used one strut to do the same thing. So may have been heavier duty.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

PERFECT!

Unfortunately, messages like that would never get through to wife, although daughter would instantly grasp the concept (her 245, of course)...

For the message to get through to wife, I'd need to hook a spark plug wire to the handle....

--
Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

would you use the copper core or the platinum? as i only want the best for my life partner!

It would clearly need to be the very lowest resistance wire on Planet Earth.

--
Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

rare earth wire hhmmm just as i suspected. thanks again don

Good idea. Why on earth does everbody have to slam tailgates? Are there really cars so badly made that that is necessary?

But the real remedy would be to have gas struts that were properly matched to the weight of the gate. The Volvo ones seem to have been designed for a car with a gate of about half the weight, so of course thay are unable to cushion the Volvo's gate once it starts dropping. With proper struts it wouldn't be possible to slam the gate - like a door closer in a building, the damping effect would be balanced to hold the rate of descent at a nice steady pace, adjusted so that it simply clicked into engagement with the latch.
Anybody ever found better struts?

Kinda make you wonder if the struts for a steel door are the same p/n as those for the aluminum door?

The sign is IMHO a really ingenious attempt at solving the problem.

We had a bell man at a high-end hotel in San Antonio slam the cargo door on our recently-bought 1997 965. I knew already that of the four clips holding the inside trim panel to the door frame, two were already broken. Well, I almost lost it. Yell at the guy loud enough to apologize quickly, but it just got under my skin so far so fast. Damn, why can't folks treat stuff, especially other people's stuff, with some care and respect?

Regards,

Bob

:>)

No, I think the Volvo tailgate struts are designed to actively pull the tailgate closed. The contrast between a tired set and a new set of struts is huge: with the tired ones (ones that do not support the tailgate on a cold morning), the tailgate needs to be slammed. When you put new ones on, they rip the tailgate out of your hands when you push it down. I have never encountered another car with this (presumably safety) feature, and people not in the know think that they need to help the tailgate on the way down.

George Antony

Yes. 2005 Chevy Impala, 5800 miles on the clock (11600 when I gave it back to National 3.5 weeks later), and it needed a fair amount of force to latch the trunklid. Certainly 2 to 3 times as much as a 940 or 240 sedan.

Bram

The perfect strut should do two things - one, hold the considerable weight of the gate open. Two, allow it to fall quickly from about 1/4 closed to 3/4, and then dampen the rate of descent for the remaining bit, slowing it to the point where it just makes that satisfying click. It would be impossible to slam a properly designed gate, because the struts would control the rate of descent not the brute trying to do the slamming.
Lids on old record players used to do that - I have one that still does. I just move it shut a little bit, and then let go. The 50 year old struts, looking like miniature Volvo tailgate struts, control the rate of closing until the lid closes noislessly a few seconds later.
I was watching the tail ramps on horeseboxes at the weekend. The same thing happens - let go of the ramp, it falls rapidly, then the telescopic damper takes over and slows it as it touches the ground.
It's not rocket science.

I think the big problems with the Volvo hatch lifts are the amount of weight they must support at full extension and most importantly, the geometry of the design virtually eliminates any lifting force as the hatch is in the last few inches of travel shut. The lift is pushing in a straight line to the hatch, meaning those first 15 degrees or so of opening are using just a few millimetres of lift travel, all but eliminating the mechanical advantage offered by the lift. Put the body-side lift pivots a couple inches further down and forward into the car, and lengthen the stroke of the lift accordingly, and the problem would be solved.
--
Chris, Dartmouth NS Canada 70 M-B 280SE, 83 245DL, 84 244 turbo, 90 780 turbo, 92 VW Golf, 90 740 Rex/Regina

Can the Impala lift be put onto the 245, or perhaps there's a way to increase the damping using an alternative part.

i've had 6 different 245's over the years (starting when i was in college - i'm 52 now) and i cant tell you how many tailgate lock mechanisims, tailgate carpet trim, handles, strongarms, etc have come loose and/or broken off because some fool thinks they have to slam the tailgate to make it close - i coach my 14 year old's hockey team and all the kids i take to the rink chant the same mantra when taking their equipment bags out of the back of my '91 245 - "dont' slam the gate - don't slam the gate". hey, i may be old and grouchy and they may not like hearing it over and over again, but at least they dont slam the gate anymore. now if i could just get them to stop slamming the side doors so hard the speakers grills fly off the speakers! thanks for letting me know i'm not the only one.
--
oceanre 91 240 wagon 260k

Cool! Do you have something that will work with side doors? Some cars need their doors slammed, but a properly adjusted 740 door (240 too?) should be handled gently. I am interested in your tailgate sign though. I can host it on my webspace if you'd like.